


Translucent Entity

by tymewarps



Category: CrankGameplays - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Body Dysphoria, Broken Bones, Crying, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Men Crying, Needles, Possession, Resurrection, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25194688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tymewarps/pseuds/tymewarps
Summary: Ethan Nestor wasn't your average guy. For one thing, he held a colossal secret about himself that might just ruin his life for a second time if it got out to a certain duo. Oh, and he was also a ghost.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach/Amy Nelson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 101





	1. Unfinished Business

**Author's Note:**

> Oopsie poopsie here comes the angst train.
> 
> This is mostly for myself. I'm feeling dysphoric and felt like writing to make me feel a bit better. Also ghosts cause why not.
> 
> I'm nonbinary btw! Also I know Ethan and Mark are sometimes uncomfortable with being portrayed in fanfiction in certain ways, but I'm only using Ethan as a vessel to vent my struggles. Obviously if he's uncomfortable with something like this, I'll take it down.

It was strange, being surrounded by a pool of blood for one second, then being able to walk through walls the next, but it wasn't like Ethan had a choice. He knew that not everyone became a ghost, and it probably had to do something with the fact that he was supposed to get revenge on his parents, but he wasn't all that interested in his 'unfinished business'. 

Once his parents cleaned up his body, buried it haphazardly, and fled to some other country the day after, the house soon became infamous for it's ability to not keep an owner for very long. All Ethan's doing, of course. Sometimes it was an accident, like knocking over a vase, but other times the owners were tiresome and annoying to listen to, so he'd scare them out. He didn't have much knowledge of being a ghost, only that he could move through objects or interact with them at will, and repossess his body, which oddly never decayed as time passed.

Ethan was starting to get lonely again. Had he really been haunting his own home for ten years now? It was the worst when the previous family had moved out and another had yet to move in, but according to his eavesdropping on the real estate agent, it wouldn't be long till a couple and their dog moved in. That was exciting, it would be the first pet in a while, but it also meant he could get caught. Animals could see ghosts after all, so he'd have to be cautious if he decided these people were interesting.

It would only be a matter of time. 

A week later, the couple moved in. He quickly learned their names, Mark, Amy, and their adorable golden retriever Chica. Ethan always was a sucker for dogs when he was alive. Throughout the weeks after, he observed the behaviors of what had seemed to be just an average family, but it turned out his findings were much more exciting than he anticipated. Mark was a gaming YouTuber, and had seemingly endless amounts of fans. Ethan snickered to himself, thinking up ideas on pranks he could pull. He could possess electronics, and it had some pretty cool effects. He wondered if he could pull off something that the man's fans would see.

The the more he watched, the more he became attached to Mark's determination and personality. He was charming, funny, and had all the right views. It was a relief to not have another bigot owning the home like beforehand. Yet, Ethan was for once hesitant to interact in fear of scaring the couple away. It was like he had a front row seat to a show loved by millions.

But then it happened. Mark was live, raising charity for... something; Ethan wasn't really paying attention, and talking with the audience. In the middle of answering questions, a donator chimed in with a request.

"Hey Mark say Trans Rights?"

Mark gave a tiny chuckle before replying, "Of course, Trans Rights! Everyone is welcome here and I'm always up to support you guys."

Mark continued talking and answering questions, but Ethan's mind tuned it out. Ethan felt sweat dripping off of him, and looked down at his shaking hands. He wasn't even sure if ghosts _could cry_ , but he sure felt like he was going to.

The thing was, Ethan was killed by his parents for being trans.


	2. Your Paranormal Therapist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan lets out his feelings, and decides to take a big risk.

Ethan's body still was missing top surgery. It still had tattered ace bandages beneath the dirt. And it sure still had that last dose of Testosterone that Ethan was caught injecting that caused his death in it too. He had gotten away with injecting for months, but he couldn't keep up the lie forever. Technically, his parents didn't mean to murder him, but one too many stabs can lead to slicing through bones. He shuddered, trying not to think of the crack he could so clearly hear ten years later.

But his ghost body was a luxury he never got during life. He looked like what he always wanted to. He was a man, and even if he couldn't show his pride to the living world, he knew he was happier as a ghost. He knew he could possess his body, but since half of the bones in it were broken, and it was a body he hated, the thought of trying to dig himself out of his own grave never crossed his mind.

Until now. He _really_ wanted to talk to Mark.

So he tried a few things first, like leaving coffee cups a table over, or cracking open windows at night. He was sure with his intense ADHD that he might have been doing these things accidentally before, but he needed to amp up his progress.

One night, with the only illumination in the couple's living room being their television screen, Mark and Amy were snuggled on the couch. "Hey babe?" Amy tried to get her boyfriend's attention. He replied with a hum.

"Don't call me crazy or anything, but I feel like this house really is as haunted as they say."

He looked at her with a knowing stare, "Honestly I've noticed small things. Items in places they weren't before type of thing. But I hope it's just us forgetting where things are in the house you know?" She nodded in agreement, still visibly concerned.

Ethan grumbled loudly, knowing they wouldn't hear him anyway. He needed to get their attention. The TV was on, but he was afraid he might mess something up with the fuses. Biting the bullet, Ethan flew into the TV. Through the cloudy screen he saw the two lovers relaxing like before. Ethan then displayed 'Hi' on the screen in bold letters before glitching out of the system and back into reality. 

"What the fuck was that?!" Mark immediately yelped in terror. The two whipped their heads towards each other in confusion. That was sure to get their attention.

"Don't freak out! It said hi; m- maybe it's friendly or something? I-" Amy stuttered as Ethan giggled to himself. 

Mark, in an attempt to not go berserk, pulled Amy and himself off of the couch and into the kitchen. After flinging open a drawer to retrieve a flashlight, he paced in thought. "What if it's trying to communicate? How would it talk to us? We don't know if it's secretly hostile."

Amy replied, "Maybe try pen and paper? Or I guess it could do something with the TV?"

As if on cue, the television flashed rapidly as Ethan tried to communicate with the couple. It was hard for him to get more than a few words out through electronics, as it took a lot of focus and practice. The screen read 'Pen and paper please.'

Mark shuffled with the flashlight and a notepad back to the couch, with Amy following close behind. He set a simple ball-point pen and the worn notepad on their coffee table. Ethan hesitated. What if this was the end? What if they decided to leave like all the others had? He shook his head, took a chance, and began to write.

**Hi, sorry if I scared you. This used to be where I lived, and I can't exactly leave. You are very kind people and I'm glad to have some company. Sometimes I just like to play some pranks when I'm bored. I've been here a long time.**

He huffed, shaking out his transparent hand and looking up to study their reactions. Both Mark and Amy's eyes were blown wide with an unreadable emotion, but when they both read the paper, their expressions softened.

"Oh, well um... That sucks. Sorry we thought you were dangerous. How long have you been here?" Mark sighed.

**Just about ten years. It gets pretty boring.**

~~The only thing I can't touch is people. I miss people.~~

He decided not to write that one.

"If you don't mind me asking," Amy began, "How did you die? A lot of rumors come from this place but nothing has ever been confirmed."

Ethan fidgeted with his thumbs, pen floating mid air as he did so.

**Murder. It was an accident though.**

"Um... How can murder be an accident?" Mark blurted out, but gritted his teeth as if he regretted his phrasing.

**I guess it wasn't.**

The pen's tip rested on the paper as he wiped away tears that should have been able to flow years before.

**I just don't like blaming my parents. I thought they loved me.**

He was sobbing now, somehow his tears were landing on the paper, leaving wet spots that Ethan hadn't expected. He never got to talked about how he died. It never occurred to him that he could. His sobbing was so violent, that somehow, some way, the couple could hear it echoing off of the walls. A pained cry of a broken boy who just wanted to be loved was displayed loud as church bells throughout the home, leaving Amy and Mark awestruck as their dog whined in concern for the ghost. Amy's eyes began to water, but she quickly wiped them away to look at Mark.

Mark understood he needed to carry on speaking. "I'm so sorry... Please don't cry, I shouldn't have said anything."

**No, I needed this. Thank you.**

A silence passed before Ethan flipped to a new page.

**Can you do me one more favor?**


	3. Naked and Afraid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan lives, and remembers why living was so hard.

After asking what his name was, Mark asked one more question before taking the responsibility of whatever favor the ghost wanted him to do. He spoke, "How old are you?"

Ethan wasn't exactly sure. He died when he was 15, but he would have been 25. Did his ghost form 'grow' or was he still mentally 15?

**I died at 15, but I think mentally I am now 25.**

"Okay. And this favor?"

Ethan took a deep breath. This was it.

**I need you to dig up my body. I'll lead you to it.**

"Oh shit, where's your body? A graveyard?" Mark asked, taken aback.

**The backyard, behind the tree.**

Mark's face quite literally dropped in disbelief. How had nobody found out that this kid was killed and buried in his own backyard? What happened to his parents? So many questions swarmed in Mark's head, but Amy snapped him out of it before he could ask anything.

"Do we have a shovel?"

"Are you seriously just about to go out there and dig a rotting corpse?!" Mark lifted an eyebrow at his girlfriend.

**Actually, the corpse is stuck in time. It's perfectly fresh. Just dirty, and lots of broken bones.**

Mark's stomach turned at that point. God, what made it that this kid's parents hated him in such a careless and neglectful manner? They didn't even have the respect to bury him properly. The couple decided to go out to the tree, which by now had grown grass over the grave. Ethan directed with his pen under the watchful eyes of thousands of stars. The backyard was always a sanctuary for the ghost; being able to stare at the constellations and doodle on scrap paper he found around the house from time to time was one of many activities that kept him sane.

That didn't matter now, though. The couple were working like dogs as they threw the dirt into a pile, revealing a thin wooden box beneath the soil after an hour.

"Phew," Mark gasped, clearly fatigued and sweating, "I can't believe we did this."

"Me neither, but there's no going back now."

They opened the makeshift casket, revealing a body twisted and crammed into the small space. Broken glasses were clasped in the corpse's hands and his short hair was matted with filth. Dried blood coated just about every inch of the body, and multiple holes from the knife used to slaughter the kid were visible underneath a ripped shirt. While the body stayed in the same condition, his clothes were completely ruined with holes and lose threads. Parts of his limbs were bent in impossible ways. Even in death, the body looked miserable.

Ethan instructed them to bring the body inside, which was hard to make not look suspicious, but they eventually managed the body onto the couch.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry but I might barf. Who's parents would ever do this?!" Amy gasped in horror, the shock of the laborious task wearing off. They truly now realized what they were looking at. A thin frame filled with holes and endless pain lay before them as the spirit dropped his notepad to the ground. He never got a clear look of the body until then. He hoped the couple hadn't noticed the binding bandages visible through the shirt's holes.

He took a deep breath, and flew in.

**_HELP ME PLEASE I'M DYING I AM DYING I'M GOING TO DIE MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT ST-_ **

Ethan hadn't felt this pain in over a decade but he was familiar with it all too well. He was coughing and wheezing in pure agony as the couple was panicking in front of him. He could barely hear them through the semi-truck of misery that had just hit him. He was probably crying. Or screaming. Most likely both. Once the wave of alarm passed, he finally got a look at what was going on. He was staring at saddened chocolate eyes, whispering him sweet nothings as Ethan gripped onto Mark's hand like a lifeline.

Ethan managed to choke out a few words, along the lines of, "I'm sorry it just hurts! It hurts _so_ much!" but through the pounding of blood in the boy's ears, he couldn't be too sure. Amy leaned close to him and shushed him as she wrapped herself around him. He couldn't even register the touch yet as he saw Mark was in a pile of bloody towels and dirt.

Ethan slowly passed out, only hearing a faint 'NO!' before slipping into sleep for the first time in forever.


	4. You Are Not to Blame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan learns it isn't as bad as it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Darling, there's no need for shame..._
> 
> _Every part of you is perfect to me!_
> 
> _Lean into my touch,_
> 
> _With me, loving is completely free <3_

When Ethan creaked open his eyes to the sight of bright white tiles and the feeling of lukewarm water surrounding him, he was mostly confused. He couldn't exactly piece what had just happened in his brain, and was only focusing on the relief of seeing Mark's goofy smile looking down to him.

"Hey buddy, you awake?"

"Yeah, I think," Ethan groaned, trying to shift around before being stopped by Mark.

"Most of your bones are broken man, i wouldn't try moving. I'm just getting you clean."

Ethan's eyes flung open in fear, but he calmed once he realized he was still in his dirt-covered boxers and bloodied bandages. He prayed that Mark didn't know what they were for; maybe the blood would make him think his parents tried to cover his injuries or something like that.

"Hey, it's okay, I know you're trans. Don't worry."

_SHIT._

"W- what? No I just, uh how did you?" Ethan trailed off, sputtering and fidgeting even if his broken body protested against it.

"Hey, what did i say about moving?" Mark scolded while he rubbed more soap into Ethan's mess of hair surrounded by the murky bath. "I promise you, it's okay. We don't have to talk about it, but you physically can't wash yourself, and I wouldn't want you to die trying. So I'm sorry bud; I gotta do this so you don't get infected."

"O- okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to freak out," he mumbled, giving in.

"You say sorry too much kid, and I've only known you for a few hours. There's nothing to be sorry for."

After the awkward cleaning, Ethan was lifted out of the tub by both Mark and Amy as Chica panted in the background. He was dried off with a towel as Amy supported his limbs wrapped in makeshift casts. He was grateful that they didn't try going to the ER since it would be hard to get the doctors to believe whatever story they would have had to make up about his injuries. After all was said and done, he was laid on Mark's bed and propped up with pillows. His underwear and binding bandages were uncomfortably soggy, and Amy seemed to take notice.

"Hey, I know you're probably embarrassed, but you probably wanna change that right?"

"Yeah," he huffed, "But all my limbs are broken. I was given ten years to think about this but I never really did," he chuckled sadly.

"I mean, one of us could help you. I'm sure that wouldn't be pleasant for you but there's probably more injuries underneath that need to be checked. We don't have to yet, but either one of us would be willing."

Ethan pondered for a moment, cringing at the thought of exposing his breasts that he hated so much. They weren't even big, but every time he saw them it just made him so dysphoric inside. He knew he had to bite the bullet.

"I think I'd rather you do it... Since you know, you're _familiar_ I guess?"

Amy gave him a comforting smile, "Only if you want. Right now?"

"Yeah."

Amy then closed the door, and took it by his pace every step of the way. She cleaned any cut areas with a towel, and put bandages on anything severe. She also got a fresh pair of her underwear- since Mark's was way too big for his malnourished 15 yr old body -and a loose bra. "I know you probably want to bind again but you should wait till they heal," she said, feeling awful for the kid. She had met many trans fans, as had Mark, and had lengthy conversations about their struggles, so she could only imagine the horrors Ethan had gone through.

Once Ethan was covered in furry blanket, Mark creaked the door open slightly. "Can I come in?" Amy opened the door to allow him inside. Ethan examined his surroundings, knowing the room front to back, but had yet to notice it was daytime until that moment.

"Looking much better Ethan! How do you feel?" Mark smiled softly, leaning on the bedside.

"Well I'm not screaming in agony, so I'd say a lot better," Ethan grinned, feeling a tinge of true happiness for once.

"I can't say I was expecting to become a necromancer and parent in one nighttime but here I am," Amy giggled.

"Parent?" Ethan questioned. _She couldn't possibly mean..._

"Well it's not like we're going to throw you to the streets! You're technically 15 dude, and you need to heal anyway. You can obviously stay with us!" Mark rubbed his shoulder slightly.

"I... Thank you guys. Thank you so much for this. I've been trying for so long but you're the only ones who helped me." He tried to lean forward into a hug, but winced in pain before he could.

Mark whipped around to grab him, cuddling him into being a little spoon. The touch of another human being pulsed through Ethan's heart at the rate of a cheetah. He hadn't been hugged in so long. Amy snuggled next to Mark as Chica hopped onto the bed with a bark, careful to not lay down on Ethan's legs.

He was finally loved. It may have taken ten years, but he found his family.


End file.
